Car, cars and planes

What a great day. E@RTC was on this week, even though there was a chance of rain this morning. Throwing caution to the wind, I left the 308's targa top down as I left the house this morning. A few raindrops fell on my windshield on the way, but the sun was shining as I arrived.



Sure, there was the usual crowd, but apparently, today was Mini day. Let me tell you, there were A LOT of Minis. Mostly BMW Minis, but there were a few old ones too. I have mixed emotions about the new Minis. I mean, they're pretty cool but it seems like everyone has one. I think I like the old ones better, but that's me -- I'm old skool that way.



As I was looking at this green one with white stripes, the owner asked me if I wanted to have a seat. Sure! I'd never been in an old Mini before and I must say it was pretty cool. For such a small car, it's actually pretty roomy inside. I'm not that tall, but there was plenty of headroom. I haven't really looked but the owner told me that a decent old Mini is about $10-15K. Hmmm...Mini...

As I was walking around, someone mentioned another event at the Museum of Flight. Apparently, a high school student was doing a class project on airplane and automotive design. As part of his project, he had organized a car show and was still recruiting cars for display. I talked to the student's Mom and Dad and they were really excited about the event. What the heck, right? I had boring house and yard chores to do, but driving and showing off my car in the sunshine was more exciting.



Supposedly, there was to be a bunch of Teslas and even a Spyker. Sadly, many of the cars the student had lined up did not show. Still, there was a pretty good turnout and many of the E@RTC regulars were there. It's funny, the cars were lined up in a parking lot next to a live runway. Even though there were some amazing cars there, people would literally run to the fence when planes came and went. I got to see a Boeing 787 take off, which was cool. Surprisingly, the 787 is very quiet at takeoff.



Ok, how cool is this? No, I'm not talking about the hippopotamic land mass blocking my car. I'm talking about the Grumman F8F Bearcat buzzing the airfield. It taxied down the runway and took off while we were there, and it proceeded to make several low altitude passes. I was able to get this shot off on his final pass. Maybe I'll try and PChop this unwanted guest out of the frame.

As I said above -- what a great day. Sunny during the day when it matters. Of course, it started raining about an hour after I got home. Five hours later, it's still raining.